The Knowledge: Dressing a crab

Theres a very nice meal in there, but youre not going to get to it without technique, writes James Delingpole

First you must knit eight slim booties, then a pair of claw-shaped mittens. No . . . not really. Dressing a crab is, of course, about separating the edible parts of the creature from the inedible ones. But before that — and since most crabs are sold live — you’ll need to learn how to kill it. A brown crab, incidentally, will stay alive in your fridge for three or four days if covered with a damp cloth; but if it does die, cook it immediately.

Don’t plunge your crab into boiling water to kill it because, says Jeffrey Martin of the Cornish fishmonger Martin’s Sea Fresh Fish (www.martins-seafresh.co.uk), the legs and claws will drop off “and it does suffer”. Consult the website’s Cooking and Recipes pages for a disarmingly humane account of how to dispatch your crab immediately before cooking it.

If you find the role of executioner too squirm-inducing, leave the crab for